During Obama’s SOTU I was thinking that Dr. Ben Carson should have been tapped to give the GOP response. Better yet, maybe they could have just played the video of his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast as the response.

I think if the some of the best things we can say is that he didn’t fail then it is hard to call the speech a success. That isn’t Senator Rubio’s fault. I don’t think anyone hits a home run doing these rebuttals.

I liked his point that poor immigrants come to the U.S. because the opportunities in their own country have been killed by the government there being too big and bureaucratic (my paraphrase). This is a very short (and maybe simple to understand) bullet point that Republicans could repeat and repeat and repeat and it might get through.

I like the idea of having a non-politician deliver the SOTU response. Why the heck not? The GOP could have capitalized on the sudden notoriety of Dr. Carson. It would have the added benefit of not putting an actual officeholder at risk for ridicule, as the GOP is now amassing a track record of awkwardness in the rebuttal.

BrentB67: I think if the some of the best things we can say is that he didn’t fail then it is hard to call the speech a success. That isn’t Senator Rubio’s fault. I don’t think anyone hits a home run doing these rebuttals. · 2 hours ago

I agree. It sounds very much like reruns of the election speeches. Which we already know won less than half the country. Then again, it’s a response speech, it’s defensive by nature.

If the GOP was awake, they would have weaved in Carson somewhere in this speech. That would really increase Carson’s spotlight and lead more people to his visionary message.

The speech was good and he said all the right things. But folks, we’ve been saying these same things for over four years, and nobody’s listening. I doubt Rubio convinced anyone who wasn’t already eager to be shut of Obama and his marauding pack of statists. But did he convince the fence-sitters? The low-information voters who gave us for more years of Obama?

The people he needed to convince weren’t even listening. Seems to me that Step One is to get people to pay attention. Step Two — a speech like Rubio’s — happens after you achieve Step One.

So, good speech, good response, that won’t move the needle an inch. Sadly.

DrewInWisconsin: The speech was good and he said all the right things. But folks, we’ve been saying these same things for over four years, and nobody’s listening. I doubt Rubio convinced anyone who wasn’t already eager to be shut of Obama and his marauding pack of statists. But did he convince the fence-sitters? The low-information voters who gave us for more years of Obama?

The people he needed to convince weren’t even listening. Seems to me that Step One is to get people to pay attention. Step Two — a speech like Rubio’s — happens after you achieve Step One.

Isn’t the point of being a conservative that we have some basic tried and true principles? We aren’t trying to invent anything–we’re using our principles to fix current problems. We need a spokesman who understands our prinicples and can commnicate them effectively in terms people can relate to when making their voting choices. Rubio does this very effectively IMHO.

Some may criticize the move to do this in Spanish as well, but on Spanish language radio today it’s ALL they were talking about. He had some supporters and some haters, but he was the ENTIRE conversation. He’s on the average Spanish speaker’s radar in a new way now.

Joe Escalante: Some may criticize the move to do this in Spanish as well, but on Spanish language radio today it’s ALL they were talking about. He had some supporters and some haters, but he was the ENTIRE conversation. He’s on the average Spanish speaker’s radar in a new way now. · 3 minutes ago